{"id":666500,"date":"2026-05-12T18:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666500\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:06:11","slug":"campaigners-highlight-gulf-between-numbers-of-boys-and-girls-cycling-to-school-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666500\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaigners highlight gulf between numbers of boys and girls cycling to school \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One in 25 boys nationally cycle to school, but this falls to just one in 250 among girls, TDs and Senators have heard.<\/p>\n

Three transition-year students from Mungret Community College in Limerick – Juno Loughran (16), Laura Pietruszkiewicz (16) and Dolmarian Ugwuagbo (15) \u2013 told the gathering at Leinster House that 20 per cent of boys cycle to their school, but just 2 per cent of girls do so.<\/p>\n

\"Transition-yearTransition-year students at Mungret Community College in Limerick: Juno Loughran (16), Laura Pietruszkiewicz (16) and Dolmarian Ugwuagbo (15) visited Leinster House on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The students are taking part in the Green Schools #AndSheCycles Ambassador Programme, which aims to close the gender gap when it comes to cycling<\/a> to school. <\/p>\n

The briefing, part of National Bike Week, brought together politicians, campaigners, health professionals and students to discuss the future of everyday cycling in Ireland. <\/p>\n

The students called for streets to be designed for everyone, with segregated, well-lit, continuous cycle routes; for national targets to be set to increase the number of women cycling; for expansion of the Bike to Work Scheme; and cycling to be treated as essential national climate and public health infrastructure.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cycling in Dublin rises 50% as most residents back more bike lanesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t just about bikes,\u201d Loughran said. \u201cIt\u2019s about freedom, health, climate action and building towns and cities where people actually want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research commissioned by insurer RedClick found that only 3 per cent of the Irish population cycles daily, and men are four times more likely than women to do so on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Half of survey respondents said poor weather was a deterrent to cycling, while 57 per cent said safety concerns put them off.<\/p>\n

Caoimhe Clarke, a consultant psychiatrist and member of Irish Doctors for the Environment, cycles to work at St Vincent\u2019s University Hospital in Dublin and when tending to patients in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be the default choice to have to get in the car,\u201d she said, adding that Ireland is the second most car-dependent country in the EU. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Our streets can be made safer for children to walk, scoot, cycle and play outsideOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Clarke noted that one in four children are overweight or obese and six in 10 adults are insufficiently active. Physical inactivity costs Ireland an estimated \u20ac1.13 billion per year, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo while we\u2019re saying to people we need to get you moving, you need to use the bike, enjoy cycling. If the network is not connected, if it\u2019s not safe, if it\u2019s not convenient, it\u2019s not going to work for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clara Clark, who founded Cycling Without Age in 2017, said trishaws, three-wheeled bicycles that can carry passengers on the front, are being used across the country for older people and those with disabilities. She said this mode of travel can stimulate and relax passengers, giving them the right to feel \u201cwind in your hair\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left are cyclists including Ruth O’Dea (Labour Party candidate, Dublin Central), Labour TD Marie Sherlock, Senator Malcolm Noonan and Labour leader Ivana Bacik at the National Bike Week event at Kildare Street. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

However, she has seen \u201cabsolutely dire\u201d cycling infrastructure while using her own trishaw in Ireland, and said this needs to improve. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0A busy school, just one bike outside: Why so few children cycle in one Dublin suburbOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to choose which wheel is going to hit the potholes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Neasa Bheilbigh, chair of the Irish Cycling Campaign, who partnered with the Oireachtas All-Party Cycling Group to host the briefing, said \u201cour cycling infrastructure is critical infrastructure… we need an increase in active travel funding to deliver these completed networks; without completed networks, we\u2019re not going to see the model changes that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One in 25 boys nationally cycle to school, but this falls to just one in 250 among girls,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-666500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}